Paint the World

I received my first journal when I was five years old. My sloppy letters splashed across the first page. My little hands somehow managed to spell out, "I opend Chistmas presents. It was Christmas." These insightful sentences began my journaling career. I wrote about my exciting life: elementary school, Polly Pockets, candy, my pet hamster, and playdates with friends. 

I find it extremely entertaining to go back and read what I have previously written. Over the years, my handwriting has drastically improved. It has transformed from big, block letters to horrendous cursive to my handwriting today. It is also eye-opening to see the events of my life--big or small--that have made me into the girl am today. Just as my penmanship has changed, I have changed as a person. From friend fights to field trips, I fully believe that these moments have influenced my life. And they are all documented in the pages of my journals. 

I am finally catching up to the 21st century and putting my thoughts on the internet instead of on paper. I have officially joined the world of bloggers. I confess that my main motivation for this blog is for my Writing and Rhetoric class at Brigham Young University. We will be studying refugees, poverty, human migration, and other hardships of the world today and posting our personal thoughts on our blogs. I am grateful for the opportunity to 1) become a better writer, 2) become more aware of the world around me, 3) express myself, and 4) influence or affect my readers and, possibly, the world.

Our class will be focusing on the photographs of Sebastiao Salgado. He published a book of his photographs, hoping to raise awareness to the issues of the world today. However, Salgado asks, "Is is simply enough to be informed? Are we condemned to be largely spectators? Can we affect the course of events?" 

I believe we can. 

We can all grab a paintbrush and begin to do our part to recreate our world. We each have different backgrounds, different stories, and different colors that have influenced our own lives. And we can take our colors and use them to help paint someone else's world. 

I am grateful for the colors in my life--even the blacks and grays. All these colors make up me. I am far from the masterpiece I can and strive to be, but I am proud of the painting I have become thus far. 

Oscar Wilde stated, "The artist is the creator of beautiful things." We have the ability to beautify our world. It simply starts with the first brush stroke...